New adventures in the new year

Healthwise

We planned a quick trip to pick up some necessary things we didn’t have room for when we moved to our new location.

Just when you think you have everything fixed, under control and able to save a few bucks, the stuff you have, or is it “the stuff that has you”, breaks down. The same is true for time.

You’ve planned your trip and intend to leave on a certain day. Then, either something quits running or a problem you thought resolved months ago resurfaces. When traveling with another person you find they’re on a different time schedule, maybe even in a different time zone so the date of departure is moved at almost the last minute.

Inevitably, after everything appears under control, the person you moved the departure date up for calls and tells you that their schedule has changed again. So, now you’re back to the original date of departure (you think).

Finally, you’re on the road the day after you thought you were going to leave, which was the day you had originally intended to leave but had been changed to the day before you actually departed. Breathing deeply you attempt to regain your composure and clear the time sickness from your brain.

The first thing you notice after getting on the freeway is that some towns aren’t sure where they’re located; Phoenix is a good example. The highway sign says “Lordsburg, NM 58 miles, Phoenix 212.” A few miles down the road the sign says “Lordsburg 44 miles, Phoenix 202.” Lordsburg looks the same as the last time you were there so you assume it was Phoenix that moved.

Everyone’s in a hurry, including you. But you’re loaded down with clothes and gear and hardly enough room for a box of toothpicks and you go over the mountains in what seems slow motion.

The first rain you’ve seen in a while streaks the windshield and the squawk, squawk on the windshield that sounds like someone’s choking a chicken, reminds you you’ve forgotten to replace the wiper blades. It’s warm outside and with the window down the smell of rain, ponderosa and juniper fill the pickup cab, replacing the closeness and essence of dog. As you wind your way down the western slope of the Mogollon Rim a large gold/red sun that resemble a giant rusty copper/steel wool pad stretches from mountain peak to mountain peak. On the freeway at legally permissible speeds you stay in the right lane, the cars in the left lane are passing you like you’re parked.

The next few days at your relatives house are spent waiting for some items to catch up with you by mail that hadn’t arrived before you left. When sitting idle, thoughts run through your mind, “I’m not moving. I’m not doing anything. Am I guilty of some 20th/21st century techno-cultural sin?”

Traveling can be more than just seeing new things. Travel can introduce us to different points of view and help us see that change is the only constant. Travel can help us understand and make shifts in our consciousness, assist us in removing ourselves from the daily routine, aid us in seeing who we’ve been, who we’ve become. It can also help us realize that what we surround ourselves with, our stuff, isn’t who we really are. And, it can help us comprehend who we really are and who we can become.